How To Quote Your Web Design Services

Are you finding it difficult to price your web design work? Don’t want to scare your customers away and at the same time, don’t want to charge too little? I have written this article so that you could use it as your own web design pricing guide.

We have all been there, it isn’t easy making prices for web design services. There are a few things that you need to take into consideration when it comes to pricing your services.

The 4 Factors To Use For Your Web Design Pricing Guide

Experience: The amount of experience you have as a web designer or developer will determine the rate you will be charging to your customers. You can’t charge $100 per hour if you have 6 months experience.

As your portfolio and client base grows you will be able to charge more and more from the experience you gain developing other websites. So don’t expect the big bucks right away.

Design: If you’re designing then you need to calculate how many hours it will take you to design the website. Each website is going to be different and some clients will have special requests, be sure to always include these requests within your quotation. It’s a good idea to ask your clients to provide you with 3 websites that they like the design of, that way you can see what they are looking for and have something to work from.

Size of the project: You will need to set your prices based on the size of the project and the amount of time it will take you to develop the actual website. I would quote it on the amount of pages and any programming that will need to be done for the site.

For an eCommerce website you should adjust your quote based on the amount of products that you will be adding to the website as this can become very time consuming when the client has 100 or more products.

Programming and additional features: Any extra programming that will need to be done or any custom features or attributes that the client may require will definitely need to be included within your quote. I would charge by the hour for any additional programming services. Some clients will ask for your quote then decide that they would like more work half way through the project, be sure to mention that your additional work will be $X-amount per hour, just to be safe.

If you price your services based on the 4 factors above then you shouldn’t have a problem when sending out your quotes. Be as detailed and as honest as you can be and try your best to explain how you have worked out the pricing for their projects.

Introduce Custom Packages

An easier way to determine what your client needs is to create your own custom packages and charge a flat fee. This way you know exactly what your client is looking for and they know exactly what their getting for their money.

You could have a package named “Professionally Designed 10 Page Website”. Write down everything you are willing to include in this package.

Will this website be editable by the user, or would you charge extra for that? Does it have a custom contact form? Are you going to include hosting and domain registration in your package deals?

Think about what you feel is essential to include in your custom web packages. Get as creative as you want. Then try making some packages for eCommerce websites.

I would start by writing down as many different package ideas as you can, then choose the best packages and begin working out your prices based on the 4 factors above.

It is always a good idea to have more than one package as I am sure that your clients will not always want the same deals.

When you start offering out these packages, make sure you let the clients know that any additional work will be billed at “your rate” per the hour.

Hourly Rates

It’s very hard for me to estimate exactly what you should charge by the hour, like I said, it all depends on the experience you have as a designer or developer. It also comes down to what you want to be payed and the skills that the project requires. If your client is looking for a flash based website and you have very little experience developing with flash. Don’t charge the rate you would charge for your 5 years experience using PHP.

Start up freelancers shouldn’t be charging sky high prices, be realistic here.

Remember that people may want your business because your cheaper then an established web development company. When you gain more clients and are more in demand you can then start charging the prices you want.

To start you off I would charge around $25/30 an hour for updates and basic programming for a freelancer with 6 months experience.

Timing

How do you work out how much time something is going to take you?

Honestly, it isn’t easy working out how long things are going to take. An experienced developer would know that anything can happen and turn 1 hour into 5 exhausting hours.

That is why I always suggest adding a couple more hours onto your quote for a safety net. That way you don’t lose out on your precious time and if it doesn’t take you as long as you quoted, give the added money back to help gain your credibility and trust.

If the customer is not happy with the prices or the time it will take. Then they simply will have to go elsewhere, don’t be a pushover. If one person finds out that your prices are negotiable then everyone will try and negotiate with you.

I have done jobs that are worth a couple of grand and have charged very little. Probably the biggest mistakes I have made, were charging too little for my start up clients. If you guys follow these rules and provide detailed quotes, you will not be making these same mistakes. Make sure you get paid, what your worth! There is nothing worse than being underpaid.

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